


Disconnected

by iamjustmexd



Category: I Am Not Okay with This (TV 2020), Knives Out (2019)
Genre: Bisexual Stanley Barber, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Friends to Lovers, Gay Jacob Thrombey, Gay Sydney Novak, Internalized Homophobia, M/M, Underage Drug Use, bisexual dina, bloodwitch
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,331
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23634628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iamjustmexd/pseuds/iamjustmexd
Summary: Stanley Barber meets Jacob Thrombey and they immediately don’t get along...Until they start hanging out afterschool.OrJust an excuse to write Jacob Thrombey and Stanley Barber together cause I can.
Relationships: Dina/Sydney Novak, Stanley Barber/Jacob Thrombey
Comments: 24
Kudos: 91





	1. Barber meets Thrombey

"Jacob Thrombey is like, Instagram famous." 

"I heard that Jacob Thrombey's family is super rich."

"I think the new kid's grandpa's private nurse is distributing money to the family."

"His grandpa was like, the best mystery author ever."

"Wasn't his cousin on the news for murdering the housekeeper or something?"

Stanley Barber usually ignored the hallway chatter but the constant talk of one name pounded through his usual social barriers. He saw Syd and Dina leaning by their lockers and started running up to them.

"Who the fuck is Jacob Thrombey?" Stanley asked, interrupting whatever conversation they were currently having.

Sydney gave him an annoyed look, but Dina smiled, "He's the new kid. His grandpa was Harlan Thrombey, that guy that died earlier this month, but the will went to his private nurse. I heard that she was super reasonable after they all tried to trick her out of the will and agreed to fund the family that needed it but not to the extent where the Jacob could still go to private school."

"Why do you know all that?" Sydney looked at her girlfriend, confused.

"I have my ways." Dina winked, "I wouldn't talk to him though, apparently he's a Nazi or some shit like that. And I checked out his Instagram and it's all Brad-like bullshit."

"Ew." Stan and Syd said at the same time.

The warning bell rang, and everyone started heading to their own separate classes. The three had biology with Mr. File, so they walked together. 

"Today we're doing a lab, so partner up." Me. File said once the bell rang again to signify the beginning of class.

Partner up usually meant everyone would have a partner except for Stan since the class was uneven. Mr. File never minded him being by himself though. Plus, he usually ended up pushing a desk beside Syd and Dina's and they'd all work in a group of three.

"Mr. Barber, you won't be alone today." Mr. File suddenly caught Stan's attention, "We have a new student joining us. Class, please give a warm, Westinghouse welcome to Jacob Thrombey."

Mr, File had coaxed someone to walk through the door with a wave of his hand. As Stan watched, he saw the prettiest boy he had ever seen in his life. He knew that Dina warned him to stay away, and maybe he should be annoyed that he would be forced to partner up with this kid. To be fair, Stan was never the type to walk away from a challenging person, he had stuck with Sydney throughout her emotional drama after all. Additionally, he did think that everyone from this town was boring anyways, this guy was new and interesting. Jacob had the same annoyed, don't-fuck-with-me face that Sydney always did when he walked into the class. He didn't seem happy to be there, that was definitely Stan's type.

Stan raises his hand and gave a salute to the brunet with the widest smile on his face. Jacob rolled his eyes but walked towards him.

"Name's Stanley Barber." He held his hand out to shake, Jacob just briefly took a glance at it before sitting down. 

Stan looked over at Sydney and Dina, they just shrugged and gave him sympathetic looks. Mr. File said that they were going to be dissecting cow eyes today so Stanley got his supplies out. He took the small knife from the desk and held it out for Jacob to take. Stan looked at him expectantly but the other boy just looked confused.

"It's a knife," Stan said. "You know, for the eyeball."

"I know what a damn knife is, why are you giving it to me?" Jacob sneered.

"Oh, so he does speak! Well Mr. Thrombey, I hate to tell you this, but we're going to need to handle knives if we're going to be dissecting things." Stan wagged his eyebrows and shot a friendly smile.

Jacob mumbled something he didn't quite understand and grabbed the knife from his hand. With that, Stan grabbed a couple pairs of gloves and put one of them down on Jacob's side of the table.

"Hey Syd." After a couple minutes into work time, he had grabbed the untouched eyeball and held it up to his own eye socket. He turned to Syd and Dina and did his best cow impression.

Dina laughed, Syd rolled her eyes but with an amused smile on her face. He turned back to his lab partner who just looked angry.

"Stop, we're working with that!"

"Mr. Thrombey, is there a problem?" Mr. File said from where he was reading a magazine at his desk.

"Yeah, can I have a different fucking partner?" 

"Mind the language, this is a school. I'd hate to give you a detention on your first day here Mr. Thrombey."

Jacob just slumped back in his chair with his arms crossed. Stan frowned and placed the eyeball back on the tray. Jacob didn't seem up for doing any work so Stan just decided to start working at it himself. It wasn't like this lab was going to be a huge chunk of his grade anyways.

"You're doing it wrong."

"And how would you know, rich boy?" 

"Shut the fuck up!" 

"That's it Mr. Thrombey, I'm sorry but you're getting detention." Mr. File's voice cut through the chatter in the classroom, everyone went silent and watched the pair that had just been bickering.

Jacob gave Stan a look of annoyance. Stan frowned but suddenly got an idea. He probably had a mischievous glint in his eye because Sydney was shaking her head in discouragement.

"Asshole." Stan said in Jacob's direction, purposefully loud.

"Mr. Barber, don't make me give out two detentions in this class."

"What? He's a fucking asshole!" Stan yelled, gesturing at Jacob.

By the bell, the pair had a tray full of eyeball goop and two handfuls of detention slips. Syd and Dina talked with Stan in the hallway about how weird that interaction was but only for a little, as they had a different class than he did. 

"Hey, Barber!" A male voice called out. A hand gripped his should and spun him around angrily. "What's your deal!?"

Stan was slightly taller than the other boy, so he just smiled and got closer so he was obviously looking down on him. Jacob's facade broke a little as he looked away for a second, but the eye contact was soon restored. 

"What's my deal? What's your deal, Jake?"

"Don't fucking call me that." 

"Then don't call me Barber."

"What if I do?"

"Then I'll see you in detention, Jake."

Stan knew that there were a couple people watching them but he never really gave a fuck about who was looking at him. Jacob probably did, what with his Instagram following. The taller male didn't look back to confirm his theory though and just kept walking as if nothing happened. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stan didn't see Jacob again until lunch. Like usual, he, Syd, and Dina were sitting at one end of one of the tables in the cafeteria. They talked about stupid things that would never matter to them in a week. Stan was laughing at something Dina said when someone angrily pushed his shoulder. He was forced to turn and was faced with a fuming Jacob. Jacob looked absolutely furious. His face was red and his eyebrows were practically knitted together.

"Hey!" Sydney protested against the violent act against her friend. "What the hell are you doing?'

"It's okay Syd." Stan assured his friend and gave a smile at the angry brunet. "Hey Jake, what's up man?"

"Because of you, I've had the shittiest day of my life! And stop fucking calling me Jake, it's fucking Jacob!"

"Because of me? Oh no, no private school. Whatever shit you went through today was because of you, I literally have no authority of the amount of shit happens to you in your day."

“You are infuriating!” 

“Oh, I know that, don’t you worry.” Stan winked

Jacob just scoffed and walked away once more.

“What just happened?” Dina asked as Stan turned back around.

“Yeah what was up with that?” Syd asked, “You’re never that sassy with anyone except your dad.”

“Well assholes get sass.” Stan shrugged and continued eating his lunch, refusing to talk about this any further.


	2. Detention

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> *Underage Drug Use Warning*  
> *Not Edited Warning*

It was Stan's second time in detention, ever. He didn't even really count the first time because that had been a wild night and they actually never ended up doing the thing they were asked to do. Plus, he had been high for half of it, so that was fun.

It was a different kind of detention today. The teacher still left them to their own devices after briefing them, but nobody else was in detention today. Not even Jenny Tuffield! It was just Stan and the rich asshole. And they weren't scraping gum from under the bleachers this time, they were shelving the library.

The library had been a mess since the last detention, and they had apparently chosen now as a good time to finally re-alphabetize the books. Their library also only had one shelving cart, so the two would have to work together in order to get any work done.

As soon as the librarian left the room, Stan started pushing the cart filled with books towards the A-section. Jacob stopped him by placing his hand on the other side of the cart and tugging it back. Stan stopped walking, rolled his eyes, and grabbed a stack of books. Then, he started to manually carry them over.

"What the fuck? I'm trying to talk to you!" Jacob shouted, getting behind the cart himself and racing after Stan.

Stan kept walking briskly. "We need to shelve the books, might as well start Jake." 

"Stop fucking calling me that." Jacob breathed as he finally caught up to the other boy.

"Why don't you want me to call you Jake? It's a perfectly adequate nickname."

"I don't need to explain myself to you." 

"Sure, you're the Nazi yet I'm the offensive one." Stan scoffed under his breath as he started shelving the books.

Jacob was quiet after that. Stan was able to finish his stack of books without interruption. When he turned around to go get more, he saw Jacob staring at the ground, a pensive look on his face.

"I'm not a Nazi." He said softly, Stan almost didn't hear him. "I just posted a joke once and it blew up. My family is really conservative except for the ones that married in so I just rolled with it."

Stan was awestruck. Of all the things he was expecting to happen during this detention, a heart-to-heart was not one of them. Jacob looked up at him, with a face that Stan had to fight not to melt at.

"Look Jake... Jacob, let's take a break, yeah?" Stan started walking to the room where he knew there weren't any security cameras.

"We didn't even-" Jacob races after the fast-walking Stanley into the textbooks room. He was interrupted by Stan holding up a rolled up joint to his face. "What the hell?"

"Don't tell me you've never had one before Mr. Private School."

"My cousin does but she's-"

"You aren't your cousin are you?" 

"Fuck off Barber."

"Do you want one or not?"

Stan held out the intimidating roll of paper to the other boy's face. The brunet rolled his eyes and grabbed it.

"Well how the fuck do you do this?"

Stan just held the lighter up to his own joint. Blowing smoke up into the air. He looked back over to Jacob, who was staring intently at the lighter. 

"Hold it close to your mouth, I'll light it up for you." Stanley suggested, flicking the lighter on once again.

Jacob tried his best to copy what he saw the other boy do but ended up coughing heavily. Stan laughed at him.

"Whatever, asshole, can we just get back to it." He pushed the still lit joint back towards the blond.

"You're wasting my product Jakey." Stan sighed, dropping both rolls on the ground and stamping them out with his foot.

"You're a drug dealer?" Jacob's eyes got really wide at that.

"Never said that." Stan shrugged, turning to walk back out to where they left their book cart.

"What the fuck!" Jacob yelled after him, running to get back. 

"Here, I'll shelve the left side, you do the right." Stan plopped a bunch of books on the top. 

There was none of the usual back talk from Jacob so they worked in silence for the better part of two hours. Every so often Stan would catch Jacob looking at him weirdly but he just chalked that up to the weed thing.

The silence was broken half an hour before they were free to leave.

"What do you know about my family?" Jacob asked

Stan was taken aback by the silence being broken. It had been a while since he had just worked in silence like that. When he was with Syd and Dina, he would talk too much, when he was with his dad, he would talk too much, when he was alone, he would crank up his music. With Jacob, he just spent an hour and a half not talking at all. And he was weirdly okay with it.

"Honestly? Nothing. Dina told me some stuff but it was just the murder shit."

"Oh, okay." 

A beat of more silence, less comfortable silence.

"Was your grandpa cool?" 

"He wrote mystery novels. Uh, he took care of my family and stuff with his fortune. Until he died though, but that's... that's not totally on him. My dad uh-" Jacob stopped talking.

"You don't have to talk about it. My family's pretty shit too." Stan smiled brightly, then glanced at the clock. "Hey it's almost time to go and we made good time. Do you wanna just leave early? Librarian probably won't mind."

"I have to wait for the next bus, it doesn't leave for another half hour." 

"Fuck that, I work tonight, just come with me. I'll give you a ride."

"My parents-"

"Loosen up Jakey!"

"Jakey is worse than Jake."

"Well are you coming or not?"

There was a period where Stan was afraid he'd say no.

"Fine."

They rolled the book cart back to its original position and Breakfast Club style booked it out of there. They climbed into Stan's car.

"Your car is disgusting."

"The bus is worse, stop whining." 

"Where do you work anyways?"

"Bowling alley."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don’t do drugs so idk how to talk about weed, so sorry about that.


	3. Bowling Alley

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stanley and Jacob play a game

"This place is empty as fuck." Jacob commented as they entered the deserted building.

"Stanley! Finally, it so dead in here. I'll see you next week!" A blur of a female running out of the bowling alley as fast as she could whizzed by the two.

"Bye Julia!" Stan yelled to a slamming front door.

"This town's weird" Jacob said.

Stan shrugged and lifted off his shirt.

"What the fuck Barber!"

"Calm down, I'm just changing into my uniform." Stan said while replacing his naked torso with his work shirt.

"Don't you have a fucking bathroom?" 

"We're the only ones here, it's fine. Not like I gave you a strip tease or anything." 

Jacob grumbled and sat on the counter.

"You wanna play a game?" Stan asked

"You're working." 

"What size are you?"

"You're working Barber, I'm not gonna distract you from-"

"No one is even here, c'mon, what size are you?"

"9 and a half" 

Stan went behind the counter where they kept the shoes. He grabbed one of the 9 and a half ones and placed them on the counter next to Jacob.

"How often do you wash these things."

"You don't wanna know."

Jacob made a face but put them on regardless. Stan cued up a lane while Jacob laced up the worn shoes. He made sure to make the names 'Stanley' and 'Jakey.'

He walked back behind the counter in order to retrieve shoes in a pair his size. As he was putting it on, he heard Jacob yelling profanities at his name being Jakey for their game. Stan felt weirdly warm at that.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It wasn't until halfway through the game until Jacob realized he had not touched his phone since before detention. The only time he ever really took a break from his screen was during class, sometimes, or while he was sleeping. Why had this tall, thrift shop boy distracted him from his massive following.

He decided he needed to at least update them on what he was doing since he hadn't been active. He decided to take a boomerang of Stan's next bowl but made sure to not get his face in there by hiding the head with a box of text. "Sorry for missing a posting day, went bowling."

After posting, Stan walked back up to him with a bowling ball, it was his turn.

"I got a spare, beat that!" Stan hopped in place like an excited toddler, it's weird to think that this guy was the one who convinced him to skip the last bit of detention and shoved him into a textbook closet to smoke weed.

They kept up the game for a while, Jacob wasn't expecting to beat Stan, as he worked here and he, himself had not been bowling for ages. No other customers came in by the time they finished, which apparently was 10 minutes before Stan had to close shop.

The game itself was subpar, Stan had won, of course. It was the way that Stan cheered every time a strike was made, no matter who did it. He would also consistently spit out nonsense that you would expect from someone who was high, but Jacob doubted that Stan was.

The blond ended their game and offered Jacob dinner. "I usually eat whatever isn't gone that isn't in our storage. Otherwise, we'd chuck it in the dumpster out back."

So there they were, eating the worst pepperoni pizza Jacob's ever had, and slushies with an incorrect ice to dye ratio right on the alley floor. 

"Hey, what's your Instagram?" Jacob asked finally.

"What?"

"Uh, your Instagram, I'll follow you."

"With your Nazi account?" 

Jacob cringed at that, but Stan wasn't wrong. He suspected his demographic was mostly of the white male variety.

"I have a personal." Which was true, it was the one that only a couple people followed.

"Sorry, I don't really use my phone much. I don't really do social media anyways. But uh, here." Stan reaches for Jacob's phone, which he let him have.

Jacob never let anyone touch his phone.

Stanley was typing into the phone, at an angle where Jacob could not see what he was doing.

"There, now you can text me." Stan beamed, handing back the phone.

He looked at the newly made contact, accompanied with a close-up picture of the upper half of the other boy's face. To test it out, Jacob quickly texted 'hey' to the number. A ringtone was heard and Stan pulled out his own phone, which was a much older version, and showed Jacob the text.

After that, they went back to eating in almost silence. The AC was loud, and there was faint pop music playing in the background. 

"I hate this shit." Stan confessed after they both finished eating.

"The food?"

"The music." He corrected. "Ever heard of Bloodwitch?"

Jacob shook his head, "No room to listen to Indie music in my family. You either like the popular stuff or classical music. Except my cousin, she's into all sorts of stuff."

"She sounds cool."

"She's an asshole."

Stan gave Jacob a suspicious look. He suspected Jacob and his cousin had a feud going on for absolutely no reason but he didn't say anything. He just walked behind the counter to switch up the music. The opening beat of 'Forever and Never' started playing through the speakers and Stan spy on the counter to get back to Jacob.

Jacob was tapping his foot and nodding ahead to the beat. When the song finished and another started to play, Stan spoke up.

"So how was that?"

"It was shit."

"It was shit?"

"Yep."

Jacob laughed, genuinely laughed. Stan's initial offensive melted when he realized the brunet had only been joking and they laughed together. Soon their food was cleared up and Stan was ready for closing. 

"Do you need a ride?" Stan asked

Jacob hesitated, looking at his expensive looking watch, then at his phone. He looked up at Stan once again.

"Sure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love reading your comments, it helped me get back to this story, so thank you!


	4. This House Is Not A Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacob gets home. Donna is a helicopter parent. Meg makes an appearance.

"Okay, see you tomorrow Jake." Stanley smiled as they parked in front of Jacob's house.

It was a nicer area of their old town. Stan could tell that despite Jacob not having as many riches as he did before, he was still living comfortably. Instead of Jacob commenting on the dreaded nickname, he simply nodded and trudged off to the front door.

The car ride there had been quiet, Stan's car smelled like weed. The radio wasn't working and Jacob could see beer stains on the seats. He tried not to look as disgusted as he was. Stan's beat up vehicle was an eyesore in this neighbourhood, considering most of the houses actually had garages and second floors. 

Jacobs unlocked the front door to the house and looked out to see Stan smile and wave before driving out of view. After he shut the door, his mother was immediately up in his face.

"Who was that?" Donna Thrombey said.

She was always overprotective of him, always up in his business as long as it wasn't online. Maybe that's why he was on his phone all the time.

"Guy from school." Jacob pushed past his mother so he could get to the stairs down to his room.

"Jacob, where were you?! You were out so late with this, this 'guy from school'! I was worried sick and-" She stopped walking after him for a second, "Jacob William Thrombey, why do you smell like weed!? Walter!"

"Mom, it's nothing!" 

Walt Thrombey hobbled into the living room. "Jacob, why is your mother so upset?"

"A guy dropped me off and she's acting like it's the end of the world. The car smells like weed, it's not like the guy actually smokes it! It's his dad's car." Jacob lied, anything to get out of this conversation.

"Why were you even with him? It was your first day Jacob, and you missed supper." Donna stated, "We don't want you turning into a junkie like your cousin Jacob!"

Jacob rolled his eyes at that remark. Ransom had been in and out of rehab for years. There was no way he was going to be anything like that prick.

"I went-" If he told them he had detention, he'd have to sit through another fucking lecture about how he should not turn into his cousins. "to that old bowling alley." Not a lie.

"On a date?" Walt asked.

"Walter! He was with a boy, it was not a date."

For some reason, Jacob felt his heart drop in his chest. "We we're partnered up for some project at school. He had work so he brought me there so I could ride back with him. I ate there."

"Alright, Donna lay off the kid. He's almost 17." 

"I don't want him hanging out with a drug user Walt!" 

Jacob's parents continued to argue, so he slipped through the basement door and locked it. When he got to his room, he pulled up his laptop and went to check all of his notifications. A text message from Meg caught his eye.

_M: How's small town life treating you, asshole?_

When Marta got the inheritance, one of the first things she did was start paying for Meg's tuition fees. She said she'd do the same for Jacob too, but he'd believe it when he'd see it.

_Jacob: Shut up._

__

_Meg: Who's the guy you were bowling with?_

__

__

__

_Jacob: You watch my insta stories?_

____

__

____

_Meg: I'm waiting to pin you for a crime since being a douchebag isn't enough_

_____ _

__

_____ _

_Meg: Who's the guy?_

______ _ _

__

______ _ _

_Jacob: Guy from school, fuck off_

_______ _ _ _

__

_______ _ _ _

_Meg: Do Aunt Donna and Uncle Walt know about him? Uncle Rich might actually kill you_

________ _ _ _ _

__

________ _ _ _ _

_Jacob: Wtf are you talking about?_

_________ _ _ _ _ _

__

_________ _ _ _ _ _

_Meg: You were on a date?_

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

__________ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Jacob: WTF? No! That's fucking gay'_

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

___________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Meg: I won't tell if no one else knows Jacob_

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Jacob: There isn't anything for them to know about! He's a guy from school who I went bowling with! Fuck!_

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Meg: Fine, whatever. But you can tell me anything_

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Jacob didn't reply, opting to scroll through other apps instead. He thought about texting his friends back home, but they'd probably just call him gay or some shit like that. He wasn't gay anyways, he just hung out with Stan cause he was the only guy he met today. 

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Suddenly, a text notification popped up again.

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Stanley: Did you get in okay?_

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

_____________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Jacob: Yeah_

______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Stanley: Good_

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Stanley: Do you maybe need a ride tomorrow?_

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Jacob really wanted to say yes. Getting a ride would take less effort and Jacob really had to get clothes that weren't his old school uniforms or full-sleeved sweaters so he didn't sweat through it. Plus the school bus was disgusting.

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

But then he'd have to explain it to his parents. It would probably be best not to even hang out with him tomorrow. It wasn't like Stanley was the best person Jacob had ever been friends with. 

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Jacob: No I’m good_

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

_______________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Stanley: Oh okay, see you tomorrow_

________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Jacob: Sure_

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

__

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

_Stanley: Oh! I almost forgot! The link I’m sending you is for Bloodwitch. You know the band we listened to earlier_

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Stanley sent the link and Jacob stared at it for a really long time before transferring the link to his computer and playing it over his speakers. 

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

He lied in bed, listening to the playlist on repeat for the rest of the night.

_________________ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _


	5. Distance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jacob avoids Stan but causes a visit from Dina

Jacob ended up walking to school, which meant he had to leave his house way too early in the morning. It had rained last night so the bottom of his pants and his shoes were muddy and damp. Real classy.

"Jake!" A voice called out as he pulled the doors to the school entrance open.

He knew exactly who it was, and he immediately tensed up. He pretended he couldn't hear Stanley and walked in the doors, hustling down to his locker. He got strange looks from everyone in the halls, but that was probably more from him being a former rich kid and wearing an expensive, white sweater than him running down the halls.

Jacob finally made it to his locker and sighed, thinking he was home free. As he entered in his lock combination, a loud bang of someone hitting the locker next to him startled him.

"Jake, dude I was calling you. Did you listen to Bloodwitch?"

Jacob looked straight at Stan and said something he immediately regretted. "Fuck off dipshit, nobody wants to hear your fucking indie crap!"

The hallway went quiet as he slammed his locker shut to drive his statement home. He saw hurt in Stan's eyes but forced himself to ignore it as he booked it to first period.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Stan was left standing in a sea of judging eyes. He watched as the kids parted for Jacob to leave before turning around and walking off to his own first class. Sydney and Dina waiting for him at the back of the crowd.

"What was that?" Dina asked

"Yeah, I thought you said you guys went bowling and became friends last night?" Syd added

"Well yeah, I thought- You know what? It's fine. Let's just go."

"Stan..."

"Just drop it, it's fine."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Lunch came all too quickly for Jacob. So far, he had not found one person that wasn't annoying as shit to hang out with. Most people were just asking about his family's fame and his murderous cousin. That's what caused him to end up standing next to the lunch line, looking out at the multitude of tables before him. 

The tables were divided into the respective friend groups, so he decided to sit at his own table and if anyone judged him for sitting alone, that was their problem.

He started eating his hot dog when the table rattled, indicating someone sitting across from him.

"Jacob right?" A girl with poofy hair and big, brown eyes smiled, sliding her own tray in front of her.

"Yeah?"

"I'm Dina, Stan's friend."

He suddenly remembered this girl was sitting with Stan when he went to yell at him yesterday. “If you’re here to ask me about my family or some shit you can fuck right off.”

“You know, you kind of remind me of my girlfriend in the way that she can be such a bitch sometimes.”

Jacob’s eyes grew wide and looked at the girl. Girlfriend? So there were gay people in this small town? He really didn’t care if other people were gay but if his parents found out he was hanging with those people they’d probably get him checked for AIDS or some bullshit like that.

“Do you have a point?” He replied after getting over the initial shock of Dina being so open about her sexuality. If someone from his old, very conservative private school did that, they’d get publicly shunned until graduation.

“You hurt my friend’s feelings.”

“So he’s fucking sensitive, why should I care?”

“He thought you two were friends.”

Jacob stopped himself from replying right away in order to think about his answer. “I can’t be friends with him.”

Dina opened her mouth to respond to that statement but shut it. Jacob could see in her eyes that she was thinking things over for herself. After a couple minutes she just nodded and stood up from the table. “Well it was... interesting to meet you Jacob. I’ll see you in English.”

Jacob watched her walk away to another table with her red-haired friend.. girlfriend? He was about to focus back to his own lunch again when someone else sat down at their table, it was Stan. Curious, Jacob watched as his smile turned serious when Dina started up a conversation. He seemed really concerned about something, and the three were having a very lengthy talk. Jacob kept watching closely until he realized he was staring at Stan when Stan turned his head to look right back at him. Jacob looked away quickly and hunched over the top of the table, pretending that he had just been glancing over for a tiny bit and not staring.

When Jacob risked another glance over to the table a couple minutes later, he found that it had been emptied. The three must’ve left while he was finishing his food.

It was only a couple minutes until the bell would ring and lunch was finished, so Jacob gathered up his trash onto his tray and walked over to the garbage bin. He placed the tray on the stack and walked to the cafeteria exit. He went to grab his binder from his locker for his next class. He saw someone that looked a lot like Stan turning the corner right as he turned into the hallway containing his locker but decided to just focus on grabbing his stuff.

He put in his combination and opened his locker, when a folded piece of loose leaf fell from his locker, softly toppling to the ground. It was a hand-ripped piece of paper and when he picked it up and opened it, he found it to be written in with blue pen.

_‘I have no idea what’s up with you, but Dina told me what you said to her. Whatever is going on, if you want to talk about it, meet me at the bleachers after school. I’ll be there until 5 and then I’m leaving. If you don’t show up, I will never bother you again. -S.B.’_


End file.
